Last night, under skies colored orange by Canada’s wildfires, a small group of climate activists gathered at the Museum of Modern Art’s annual Party in the Garden fundraising event (MoMA ). The target of their demonstration was the chair of the institution’s board of directors, Marie-Josée Kravis, whose husband, Henry Kravis, owns a private equity firm heavily invested in the oil and gas sector.
Protesters arrived with a 20-foot-tall homemade oil rig, topped with a recreation of a painting of a burning gas station by artist Ed Ruscha, one of the gala winners. The following sentence was superimposed on the artwork: “MoMA Drop Kravis”. The demonstrators also carried a banner with the same slogan, and chanted at the waist “We need clean air, not another billionaire” and “Henry Kravis, you can’t hide, we accuse you of ecocide”, according to ART news.
Henry Kravis, whose net worth exceeds $7 billion, per Forbes, is co-founder and co-executive chairman of KKR, one of the top five private equity firms in the world. The company is a major stakeholder in the Coastal GasLink Pipeline, a controversial project opposed by environmental activists and leaders of the Wet’suwet’en First Nation, whose lands would be affected by construction.
Amnesty International has doomed the pipelinesaying it poses a threat of “serious human rights abuses” to the Wet’suwet’en and other Indigenous land defenders.
Marie-Josée Kravis has served on MoMA’s Board of Trustees since 1994. She was elected president in 2021succeeding Leon Black, a museum administrator who himself was the subject of numerous protests.
Tuesday’s protest was organized by several activist groups, including Climate Organizing Hub, New York Communities for Change and Reclaim Our Tomorrow. At the entrance to MoMA, members handed out flyers with a QR code pointing to a open letter.
“While MoMA promises to ‘lead in sustainability,’ they have no problem doing business with climate criminals like Henry Kravis who fund the death and displacement of millions,” the letter reads.
“We live in a time when institutions are held accountable for their associations with people who cause harm,” the missive continues. “By putting Kravis’ name in the spotlight, you are supporting the injustices caused by KKR. We call on you to sever ties with this billionaire who is destroying the world.
MoMA officials did not immediately return Artnet News’ request for comment on Tuesday’s protest or the activists’ open letter.
This is not the first time that the institution’s Garden Party has sparked protests. In 2018, MoMA workers gathered at the event to protest ongoing contract negotiations with the museum. In 2022, Starbucks employees used gala to rally against coffee chain president Mellody Hobson, who was honored that year.
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